This invention is an improvement in disposable cigarette lighters commonly called "gas" or "butane" type lighters. Several of these are on the market under various trade names such as "BIC", "CRICKET", "RONSON" and "SCRIPTO". Typically, they have a plastic body about three inches long containing liquid butane fuel, and a head end with a rotatable flint wheel adjacent a movable valve actuator controlling flow of fuel gas to an outlet port.
The flint wheel and the valve actuator are at one side of the head end and positioned so both can readily be manipulated by a user's thumb. The valve associated with the actuator is normally closed by a spring inside the head. The user must hold his thumb on the valve actuator to keep the valve open and the lighter lit.
While these lighters are classified as cigarette lighters, they are used for other lighting purposes such as for pilot lights and burners in stoves, ovens and water heaters, and gasoline and kerosene lamps and heaters, to name a few. The lighting of such a burner inside an enclosure, and particularly the lighting of an oven burner for a domestic gas stove or a main burner of a gas furnace or water heater is a risky procedure due to the necessary location of the burner at a point spaced from the door or opening through which the operator's hand must extend if he holds a lighted ciragette lighter or match and extends it into the stream of gas to be ignited.
Unburned gas can collect inside the housing of such an appliance when the pilot and burner have been off. Furthermore, gas burners are usually in multiple units spaced from side to side relative to one another, with the result that the burner units remote from the ignition point emit a large amount of combustible gas before the flame reaches it, resulting in an explosion which, even though minor, may be sufficient to ignite the operator's clothing or singe his hand and clothing.
This situation therefore is in need of improvement to enable a person to operate a cigarette lighter remotely to avoid this kind of risk.